Joran van der Sloot Sentenced to 28 Years in Jail

By Brendan Giusti, Christian Post Reporter Friday, January 13, 2012

Joran van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in jail on Friday.

The ruling was handed down from a three-judge panel in the Peruvian court where van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores.

Van der Sloot admitted on Wednesday that he killed the 21-year-old in his hotel room in Peru.

The murder happened five years to the day that Alabama teen Natalee Holloway disappeared. Van der Sloot was also a main suspect in the disappearance. Holloway vanished in Aruba while on a high school graduation trip with her Alabama classmates.

Van der Sloot’s defense attorneys argued that he killed Flores after suffering "extreme psychological trauma" from the ongoing Holloway drama. Lawyers requested leniency because of van der Sloots alleged post-traumatic stress syndrome.

In addition to the long sentence, van der Sloot was orderd to pay $75,000 in reparations.

Van der Sloot’s sentence is slated to end in 2038, but he could be freed sooner for good behavior, according to reports.

Van der Sloot faces additional legal woes in the U.S. U.S. officials are looking into extraditing the 24-year-old to face extortion charges in Alabama.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Birmingham told MSNBC they are ready to try him and are looking into extradition. The central question remains whether van der Sloot will have to serve his Peruvian sentence first.

The portrayal of van der Sloot as a victim outraged Holloway’s family, which requested an Alabama court officially declare her dead on Thursday.

Holloway’s mother, Beth, still feels “immeasurable” pain, according to the family’s lawyer John Q. Kelly.

“It’s just outrageous and unfathomable that he’s using his torment of the Holloway family, his refusal to cooperate and his extortion and fraudulent behavior as a reason why he deserves sympathy,” Kelly told The New York Daily News.

Van der Sloot took $25,000 from the Holloway’s in 2010 under the premise he would direct investigators in Aruba to Natalee’s remains.

“He just defrauded Beth Holloway out of $25,000, and he claims that left him so rattled he had to go kill someone?” Kelly said. “He’s trying to mitigate murder by being all upset about the other crimes he committed.”